Guangdong Province, located in southeast China, occupies a land area of 178,000 sq km. Its islands add a further 1,600 sq km. To the south it meets the warm waters of the South China Sea along a coastline of 3,368 km. The Tropic of Cancer runs through the center of this low latitude province where the Pearl River, 2,122 km long, meets the sea. The fertile Pearl River Delta is rich in fish and rice.

The primary industry yielded a value added of 137.459 billion yuan, 3.2% more than that of the previous year; the secondary industry, 1,074.725 billion yuan, a growth of 15.0%; the tertiary industry, 957.944 billion yuan, a growth of 10.8%. The ratio of the three sectors was 6.3:49.5:44.2.

Revenue and expenditure

Provincial revenue was 443.2 billion yuan, an increase of 25.2% over the previous year.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

CPI was up 2.3% from the previous year.

Investment in fixed assets

Fixed asset investment was valued at 695.738 billion yuan, up by 16.3% from the previous year.

Major Industries

Agriculture

In 2005, the province's total grain output was 13.95 million tons, 0.4% up from the previous year.

The output value of 3,899 high-tech enterprises in the province stood at 1,068 billion yuan, up 25.0% from the previous year.

Construction

Its added value was 76.857 billion yuan, up by 7.7%.

Transportation

Freight carried by various means of transport for the year was 0.4% down from the previous year to be 413.666 billion ton-kilometers, which included 30.986 billion ton-kilometers by railway, down 9.2%; 74.796 billion ton-kilometers by highway, up 13.8%; 301.786 billion ton-kilometers by waterway, down 2.4%; and 1.736 billion ton-kilometers by airway, up 8.1%.

The number of passengers carried by various means of transport was 12.0% up to reach 214.549 billion person-kilometers, which included 32.497 billion person-kilometers by railway, up 5.4%; 121.702 billion person-kilometers by highway, up 13.1%; 965 million person-kilometers by waterway, down 5.1%; and 59.384 billion person-kilometers by airway, up 14.1%.

Postal services

The annual turnover of postal operations totaled 5.998 billion yuan, 8.8% up from the previous year.

Telecommunications services

The annual turnover of telecommunications services totaled 211.751 billion yuan, up by 22.6%. At the end of 2005, the number of fixed line subscribers reached 34.3 million, an increase of 4.758 million from the previous year-end; and the number of mobile phone subscribers reached 64.52 million, an increase of 10.78 million. Internet users numbered 9.401 million.

Retail

The annual turnover from retail sales reached 788.264 billion yuan, an increase of 13.0% from the previous year.

Tourism

Revenue from tourism totaled 187.961 billion yuan, up by 13.0%.

Continued Effects of Market Reform

Imports & exports

The annual value of imports and exports totaled US$427.98 billion, 19.8% up from the year before. The figure included US$238.16 billion from exports, up 24.3%, and US$189.82 billion from imports, up 14.7%.

Economic and technological cooperation

Overseas project and labor contracts signed during the year, numbering 16,069, were valued at US$3.599 billion, up 83.6% from the previous year. Business turnover for the year totaled US$2.784 billion, an increase of 46.5% from the previous year.

Foreign investment

The foreign direct investment which was materialized during the year stood at US$12.364 billion, up by 23.5%. By the end of 2005, the registered foreign-funded businesses numbered 58,800 in Guangdong.

Urban Construction and Management

Road transport

The year saw the construction of 4,198 km of new highways including 621 km of express highways, and the renovation of 570 km of existing highways.

Social Undertakings

Science and technology

A total of 14,351 technological contracts were signed, they were valued at 11.223 billion yuan, up 96.0% from the year before. A total of 227 engineering research centers at the provincial level had been established by the end of 2005. The investments in scientific and technological development activities totaled 46.235 billion yuan.

Education

The number of students enrolled in postgraduate schools and institutions of higher learning during the year stood at 17,100 and 307,000 respectively. About 99.68% of the school-age children got enrolled in primary schools.

Culture

By the end of 2005, the province had a total of 138 arts performance organizations, 140 cultural and arts centers, 129 public libraries, and 148 museums. About 96.1% and 96.4% of the provincial population respectively had access to radio and TV programs. The subscribers of cable TV programs numbered 11.16 million.

Public health

At the end of 2005, there were 16,054 health and medical institutions staffed with 289,800 people and equipped with 188,000 beds. A total of 977 urban community health centers and 21,700 village clinics had been set up by the year-end.

Sports

Athletes from the province won 46 gold medals, 42 silver medals and 36 bronze medals at the 10th National Games.

Welfare and aid

The province put in 450 million yuan as disaster relief fund. By the year-end, 1.719 million people had been covered by the system to guarantee their minimum living standard, an increase of 560,000 people compared with the 2004 figure. The input to this end totaled 737 million yuan. Various welfare units across the province put up 84,104 homeless and vagrant people. The funds raised through selling welfare lottery totaled 1.368 billion yuan in 2005.

Population, Employment, Social Security and Living Standards

Population

The year 2005 saw a birth rate of 11.7‰, and a mortality rate of 4.68‰. The natural growth rate of the population stood at 7.02‰. At the end of the year, the total population stood at 91.94 million.

Employment

The employed population stood at 48.32 million at the year-end. Some 1.014 million new jobs were created during the year, and a total of 113,000 laid-off workers got re-employed.

Registered unemployment rate

The registered urban unemployment rate was 2.58%, 0.13 percentage points down from the previous year-end.

Social security

At the end of 2005, insurance plans for endowments, unemployment, medical treatment, and industrial injury covered a population of 15.648 million, 11.307 million, 12.353 million, and 16.051 million respectively. These figures are respectively 14.4%, 12.4%, 19.4% and 32.1% up from the 2004 figures.

Residents' income

The disposable income of urban residents was 14,770 yuan per capita, up by 6.3% from 2004. Rural residents' per capita net income was 4,691 yuan, up by 4.5%.

Geography and Natural Conditions

Topography

The province is high in the north and low in the south. Mountains make up 31.7% of the total area, hilly areas 28.5%, terraced farmland 16.1% and plains 23.7%. It has 3.12 million hectares of farmland, 10.25 million hectares devoted to forestry and 570,000 hectares of underdeveloped grasslands.

Climate

Most areas enjoy a subtropical monsoon climate with adequate rainfall, long summers and warm winters. Annual precipitation in 2005 averaged 1,770 mm. Artificial rainfalls amounted to 2.2 billion cubic meters. The sunshine time during the year stood at 1,606.2 hours, a reduction of 9.8% compared with a normal year. Its average annual temperature is 22°C.

Natural resources

Guangdong boasts rich mineral resources. By the end of 2005, a total of 129 minerals have been discovered, and the reserves of 92 minerals have been proven.

Forests cover 57.5% of the province with standing timber reserves of 300 million cubic meters. Species include pine, Chinese catalpa, fir and eucalyptus.

By the end of 2005, 237 forest, wetland and wildlife reserves had been established, covering a total area of 1.07 million hectares.

The province has extensive access to the sea together with a network of interconnected waterways with many reservoirs and fish ponds. It is rich in aquatic products. Its marine breeding areas cover 780,000 hectares and it has a further 430,000 hectares of freshwater breeding areas. The main crops are rice, vegetables and fruit. Zhanjiang is the main center for sisal hemp while fruit production is predominately based around Maoming. Among the 200 varieties of fruit grown in Guangdong are pineapples, bananas and litchi, together with longans and oranges.

The province faces a shortage of water resources. At the end of 2005, the water storage in large reservoirs totaled 13.98 billion cubic meters. The annual water consumption stood at 47 billion cubic meters.

The year 2005 saw a reduction of 94,139 hectares of cultivated land as a result of construction, disasters and readjustment of agricultural structures.

Tourism resources

Guangdong is now seeing more and more of its cities designated as "Excellent Tourist Cities" for the list now includes Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Zhaoqing, Zhongshan, Foshan, Jiangmen, Shantou, Huizhou and Hainan. In particular Zhongshan and Hainan rank first and second among the cities at prefecture and county levels to have been awarded this honor.

Development of the tourism triangle based on Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has now taken off. The State Council has approved the introduction of a 144-hour visa endorsement service in 10 cities in the Zhujiang River Delta and Shantou City.

Eleven of the province's scenic spots and scenic areas are now graded 4-A designating them as top quality tourist areas: